I don't even know what to say about this weekend, well actually I do - a great deal

 USC dancers just briefly resting up for intense weekend

Before you dig into the listings today I’m going to provide you a little guidance.
Tonight go the Wadsworth and Friends concert or the USC dance performance (above.) The go by and see "Blues Chapel" and "Last Words" (until midnight) at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios and stop in down the hall and hear jazz at the Blue Martini.  
Friday go either to Vibrations or USC Dance or Columbia College dance or “Crowns” at Trustus. "Blues Chapel" and "Last Words" with a Haitian relief concert at Blue Martini. Saturday go to opening day of “Grass Roots” an exhibition on Lowcountry and African baskets with lectures and tours and/or go see the films about mill village and mills at the 701 Center for Contemporary Art. After dinner attend one of the three dance performances or go the S.C. Philharmonic and after that go to the “What’s Love” art event at 701 Whaley.
Sunday see “Chemistry of Color” at the Columbia Museum of Art where at 1 you can see a movie about the Harlem Renaissance and all afternoon there’s a Chinese New Year’s celebration. Stick around for the 3 p.m. concert of Baroque music or attend the USC chamber music concert a few blocks away.
This give you some idea of how full your weekend can be with arts?

Thursday, Feb. 11

Wadsworth coming to Wadsworth concert
He’s no longer running the chamber music series that bears his name, but Charles Wadsworth will be at the next concert in body as well as spirit. The pianist and founder of the Spoleto USA Chamber Music series joins series director and cellist Edward Arron, soprano Courtney Budd, pianist Jeewon Park,  violinist Chee-Yun and flutist Angela Jones-Reus in a concert of music by Bach, Saint-Saëns, Amy Beach, Weber, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, Piazzolla and the man himself.
The 7 p.m. concert is at the Columbia Museum of Art. Tickets are $35 or $30 for museum  members. Call 799-2810.

Art for the heart
Just in time for the heart holiday Cindy Saad, Penny Baskin, Mana Hewitt, Betty Holland and Becky Blair will show and sell their hand-crafted jewelry at City Art. Bring your money for your honey 5 to 8 p.m. today. (803) 252-3613.

Two shows and two artists
A native of South Carolina and a long-time resident take over the Sumter Gallery of Art..
“Candice Ivy: Black Tide” and “Linda Fantuzzo: The Space Between” look at the land around us and how it shapes us.

Ivy, a native of Hartsville who lives in Boston, has created a multi-media work that explores the sometimes troubled relationship among family, community, history and landscape. It consists of wall projections of furrowed fields that speed past the viewer leading them toward a looped video clip of young men and a pit bull in a yard. The piece was shown at the Laconia Gallery in Boston and Ivey has also exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, the Rhode Island International Film Festival and the Sguardi Sonoir Festival in Venice.

Linda Fantuzzo is a long-time and well-known Charleston artist who creates atmospheric paintings that meld the landscape, interiors and sometimes paintings of those things. She has shown extensively throughout the country. “The Space Between” consists almost entirely of never-before-seen paintings.
An opening reception takes place tonight from 5:30 to 7:30. Admission is $5, but other times the gallery is free. The Sumter Gallery, 200 Hasel St., Sumter, SC 29150 (adjacent to Patriot Hall on Haynesworth St.) The exhibitions remain on display through April 16. (803) 775-0543.

New dance at the U
USC dancers will be moving in new ways for “Innovative Works,” a performance of mostly just-created pieces.

Guest choreographer Celia Rowlson-Hall’s  “Cinderella at the Bar” examines how beauty and identity are intertwined. She has done music videos, is a filmmaker  and presented pieces at Lincoln Center Clark Theater, Dance New Amsterdam, Dixon Place, Galapagos Arts Space, Theater for the New City, Manhattan Theater Source and La MaMa Festival

Other new works are “Between You, Me and the Lamppost” by faculty member Thaddeus Davis and USC dance artist director Susan Anderson’s “Piano Concerto #2.”
Performances are tonight through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in Drayton Hall Theatre, Sumter and College streets. $16. 777-5112 or 251-2222.

Friday Feb. 12
More dance

If you like young dance, this really is the weekend for you. USC dance is joined by two more dance performances starting tonight.

”Musicality” by Vibrations Dance Company is a brand new evening long series of pieces by company artistic director Terrance Henderson. The title of the night refers to the fact that all were directly inspired by and connected to soul, rock, and rhythm and blues, hip-hop and pop music.

It’s at  7:30 tonight and Saturday at the Columbia Music Festival Association, 914 Pulaski St.
Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 ($10 cheaper for students.) Saturday includes

Columbia College dancers will take the stage in some cases doing works choreographed by other students. T0night and Saturday at 7:30 in the Cottingham Theatre at Columbia College. 803.786. 786-3850. $10.

You can leave your hat on
Trustus Theatre is for the third time bringing out the big hats and songs for “Crowns.” The musical uses the fancy hats women wear to church to tell stories in song. It also sets up a bit of a culture clash when a young women returns from a northern city to stay with her South Carolina aunt.

Jocelyn Sanders is directing once again but the show has a new musical director. Three returning cast members are joined by four new faces.
The show opens tonight at 8 and runs through March 6. For tickets call (803) 254-9732 or www.trustus.org

Saturday, Feb. 13

South Carolina's greatest artists

One of the biggest and most important exhibitions Columbia has had in a while opens today at the McKissick Museum at USC. “Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art” is an in-depth look at the baskets created along the South Carolina coast for hundreds of years and counterparts in Africa. Many of the baskets are from the USC collection and the show will travel to the Smithsonian and the new Museum for African Art in New York. In the show is a rare, recently-discovered basket from the mid-19th century (pictured)

The show opens today at 11. Between then and 4 you can take tours with curator Dale Rosengarten and basketmaker Nakia Wigfall and listen to a lecture on rice plantations.
Call 777-7251. (I’ll have more about the show Sunday. You can also check out a piece I did for Free Times last week at freetimes)

Young talent and old composers
The South Carolina Philharmonic has is calling tonight’s concert “From Russia, With Love,” but it might have dubbed the whole weekend “Young Love.” The soloist tonight is 17 and Sunday three ensembles of the Philharmonic Youth Orchestras play.

Sean Yeh is performing as winner of the Southeastern Piano Festival held in Columbia each summer. He has plenty of other awards too and made his orchestral debut with the Chicago Symphony in 2008. He’ll play Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand.
The concert opens with the “Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture” by Tchaikovsky – one of the most popular orchestra works– and the Rachmaninoff Third Symphony.

A silent fund raising auction starts in the Koger Center lobby at 6, music director Morihiko Nakahara  (to right in his 007 pose) gives a talk at 6:30 and the music starts at 7:30.
Tickets are $18 to $50. (803) 251-2222 or capitoltickets.com 
The Youth Orchestras concert is at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Koger Center where tickets can be purchased for $10 (half that for kids.)

Movie about the mills
The exhibition “Olympia” has gotten the 701 Center for Contemporary Art deeply into the mill aesthetic. Today is set aside for movies about mills and mill workers.
"The Cry of the Children" is a 1912 film about child labor in the mills and "The Uprising of 1934," a 1995 documentary about a textile strike during which 500,000 workers walked off the job. Tom Terrill, a retired history professor who worked on “The Uprising,” will lead a discussion after it is show at 1:30. “Children” runs at 11:30 and 4.
This event is free and open to the public.
The center is at 701 Whaley St., second floor. 779-4571.

You sexy thing
The “What’s Love Fest” is back for the third year. The popular party has food, drinks, music, dancing and art all tied together by love and lust. Some of what’s served up is temping, some tame, some tempestuous.
The party is at 701 Whaley from 7 to midnight and admission is $15 in advance and $20 at the door. The exhibition will also be open from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday.
You can buy tickets online at palmettoluna.org.

Sunday, Feb, 14
Innovative Innovista unveils new music by dean
Two new works by Tayloe Harding, dean of the USC Music School, have public world premieres today as part of the Chamber Innovista series. “Love Songs” consists of two parts, “Paul to the Corinthians – Agape” and “Inmost Heart – Romantic’ and will be performed by be Tina Stallard, soprano; Jessica Leeth, flute; and Christopher Berg, guitar.

The two short works are part of a four-song cycle Harding is writing. Both use text exploring varieties of love and came about in unusual ways. “Agape” was written for Harding’s daughter’s wedding which takes place the day before concert (so the composer will not be at the concert.)  The second was a commission auctioned at a fund raiser for the music school. The first piece is based on a text from the New Testament, the second from the I Ching, the classic Chinese text.

Also being played at the 3 p.m. concert  is “Dover Beach for Baritone and String Quartet, Op. 3” by Samuel Barber;  “The Summer Knows” by Michel Legrand; “Cabaña Cubano” by Bert Ligon; and “Terzetto for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano, Op. 22” by Theodore Lalliet
The concert will take place not at the music school by at 300 Senate St. Admission is $15. Call 777-4288.

Go for Baroque (you’ve heard that before)
At the same time, the Columbia Museum of Art’s Baroque gallery will be filled with the sound of Baroque music played on Baroque instruments (viola d’amore and lute). Thomas Georgi, who has recorded more viola d’amore music than anyone in the world, will lead the group in the 3 p.m. concert that is part of the “Art of Music” series.

The viola d’amore looks like a viola, but has six-stringed and beneath those a set of “sympathetic” strings that vibrate when the main strings are bowed. The instrument, widely used during the 1700s, often has a carved blindfolded face atop the nick representing the blindness of love. Ah don’t we know it. Now we can hear it.

Admission is $7 or free for members. (Members must make reservations) $5 student tickets at the door. 799-2810.

Monday, Feb. 15
Out and online
Chicago artist Doug Smithenry discovered that young people were  “coming out” and announcing their sexual orientation on Youtube. It inspired him to create “Coming Out Online” consisting of 48 small paintings. The show stops at Columbia College for for a two and a half day showing .

 “I have transformed these online testimonials into an installation of paintings that literally waves the colors of gay pride as it reflects and celebrates how the Internet has provided a sense of community for isolated queer youth,” Smithenry said.

The show opens today and the artist gives a talk at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. It closes Wednesday at 2.  The college is at Main Street and Columbia College drive about two miles north of downtown. Call 786-3088.

Tuesday, Feb. 16
A familiar and a new face

Columbia native Angelia Cho is back home to play Dvorak’s Violin Concerto in a minor with the USC Symphony. The new face is guest conductor Nicola Giuliani, who will also lead the orchestra in Dvorak's Slavonic Dance in G major and Brahms' Symphony No. 1.   Cho, who holds degrees from the Curtis Institute and the New England Conservatory, has performed throughout the world both as a soloist and chamber musician.

A native of Italy, Giuliani conducts throughout the world, mostly in Europe. He has conducted international tours with the Enescu Philharmonic of Bucarest, the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Ukrainian National Symphony Orchestra of Kiev. He has taught during the annual conductor’s training institute at USC.
Neil Casey, assistant Conductor of the orchestra, will give a talk at 6:45 and the concert starts at 7:30 in the Koger Center. Tickes are $25; $8 for students. (803) 251-2222 or http://www.capitoltickets.com.

Wednesday, Feb. 17

Life is a cabaret at Trustus
Trustus Theatre gets all New York on us with the first of three cabaret performances that also serve as fund raisers for the theater. The performers are well connected and known in the cabaret world, which seems to exist mainly in New York and Europe. First up is Marjorie Barnes, who has been in performed in a number musicals including “Hair,” “Bubbling Brown Sugar” and “Dreamgirls.” The Columbia-based Wideman/Davis Dance company opens the show. The series continues once-a month through May. The lineup: Cait Doyle, March 3; Columbia native Jonathan Whitton returns home April 13; and Molly Poe, May 12. Tickets are $30 in advance and $35 at the door or you can buy a pass to all for $110. 254-9732.

Make your voice heard
Head to the Contemporary Art Center a bit before 7:30, sign up and you get up to five minutes to say what you’d like for the arts in Columbia. Some local officials and candidates (including most running for mayor of Columbia) will be there. 701 Whaley St. 779-4571.

Jazz from Korea
This is quite saving the best for last, but it's pretty close.
Jazz pianist Jangeun Bae brings her blend of classical and jazz, east and west to Columbia for several concerts. The pianist has played around the world and has two CDs out, one called "Mozart and Jazz."
Bae will be joined by bassist Craig Butterfield, trombonist Kevin Jones, guitarist Bert Ligon and others in a concert tonight at 7:30 at the USC School of Music. It's free. Call 777-4324.
Then next Friday and Saturday, Feb. 19 and 20, she'll be at the Blue Martini. 808  Lady St., in a trio setting. Those gigs start at 9 and are free as well. 256-2442.

Nude Tuesday! Questions about the non-nude candidates and some art news

"How to Take Photos Abroad" by Leslie Pierce. It will be in
the "What's Love"  show taking place this weekend at 701 Whaley St.

The candidates forum Monday night (see Sunday's posting too)
Dan Cook from Free Times said: Worst Format Ever. I'd just say it should have been only candidates for mayor. And that only two of those candidates  - Kirkman Finlay and Steve Morrison - really answered the question about their giving to the arts.
If you were there, tell me what you thought on the comments at the end of this posting.

News for those who have money and news for artists
If you happen to be in the market for some big bucks fund raising (and probably fun) events don't forget about these.

 The Columbia Museum of Art started having big springtime galas three years ago. The first was built around a show about ancient Egypt and last year's was connected to the "Turner to Cezanne" exhibition with an emphasis on Paris as art center in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

It will be the usual lots of food and drinks and music by bands and solo musicians. A chandlier by artists Dale Chihuly, commissioned by the museum's contemporaries group, will be unveiled. It's April 17 and tickets are $150. Contact the museum at (803) 799-2810 or columbiamuseum.org

In Charleston, the Spoleto Festival USA is celebrating the re-opening of the Dock Street Theatre after a three-year renovation with a party April 1. You can buy into this on several levels: a tour and concert, drinks and concert, sit down dinner and concert which run $250 to $1,000. 

Who's playing? Well you can start with Natalie Dessay, one of the world's most acclaimed operatic sopranos. New chamber music series director and violinist Geoff Nuttall and several other chamber players will also perform. Heather Gillespie, who was in a Spoleto production of DuBose Heyward's "Mamba's Daughters" will be performing part of a play Heyward wrote for the opening of the 1936 replica of an 18th century theater. There will also be a sneak peek at the opera "Flora" which is being put on during the 2010 festival. "Flora" was the first opera every performed in the colonies (and that happened to be in Charleston) and the first production in the original 1736 Dock Street. 

For tickets (843) 579-3100 or go to spoletousa.org

The Spartanburg Museum of Art is desperately looking for artists from all over the state to enter its  first annual statewide show. The good news is that first place gets $3,000 (and another $5,000 will be spread around to others.)
The bad news is that it is open only to 2D work, there's a $40 entry fee and the deadline is Feb. 18. http://www.spartanburgartmuseum.org/

Also accepting entries is "Runaway Runway" for designers making clothing of recycled materials. The deadline is April 9 and there's a $10 entry fee. http://www.runawayrunway.net/

The candidates and the arts - unanswered questions, but upcoming chances to ask more

During many years of attending art events I’ve noticed how rarely one sees elected officials in the audience. (Many others one would expect to see are also rare birds, but let’s save that for another time.)

A few months ago I emailed art questions to the Columbia mayor and city council asking about their involvement in the arts – what they attended, what groups they were members of, if they purchased art.  I heard back from two of the seven (Tameika Devine and Belinda Gergel) even after several reminders.

That was a dead end, but the mayor’s race was heating up so I moved on to those candidates.
Not much response there either.

To give the non-responders the benefit of the doubt, they may have no idea that I’ve been reporting on the arts for a long time and was not always self-employed. At the risk of sounding self-important if they don't know me they probably aren't that involved in the arts.

Who responded and they said:

Joe Azar, candidate for mayor in almost every election, goes to art shows and musical performances of all kind.
“I actually play more than I attend as I am a musician,” said Azar, right, who owns Upstairs Audio.

 

Sparkle Clark, an environmentalist, said she has on and off regularly attended plays at Trustus and movies at the Nickelodeon and gone to art shows. She’s also a nature photographer.

Steve Morrison’s involvement in the arts (Columbia Museum board, Spoleto Festival USA board, 701 Center for Contemporary Art Board and so on) is extensive and well known. I could fill a whole column on it, but that wouldn’t be fair in this context.
I see Morrison, let at left, and his wife Gail (who has been on the board of the Columbia City Ballet and headed the search committee for a S.C. Philharmonic music director) all over the place, from small shows to operas at Spoleto. They’re members of many arts organizations including the Columbia Museum of Art, S.C. Philharmonic, Columbia City Ballet, Workshop Theatre and so on.

I reached candidate Gary Myers by phone and he talked passionately about the importance of the arts as part of the city’s big picture. He grew up in public housing and said his life was improved by arts events at the nearby Benedict College and Allen University. As a kid he spent summers with relatives in New York where he got a dose of art. Before moving back to Columbia, Myers lived in Miami where he went to arts events (and he talked knowledgably about the specifics.) He is not a member or a regular participant in Columbia arts.

Aaron Johnson, co-owner of a camera shop, didn’t respond. He addresses the arts on his campaign website with a statement that sounds like it was written by a veteran arts administrator who has learned all the right words – innovate, facilitate, incubate and so on. His web site states “there is no excuse for (Columbia) not being a national headquarters for the arts.”

Two of the three major candidates, Kirkman Finlay III  and Steve Benjamin, did not respond to the questions and their websites do not speak to the arts.

I contacted Finlay, left, both as council member and a candidate for mayor several times. Not long ago I was at a party for Finlay at the home of Lee Lumpkin, Columbia Classical Ballet board president. He stood on the beautiful staircase and said times are hard and don’t count on more money. Finlay is good at facing facts. Finlay also spoke from the Koger Center stage before a recent performance of the Classical Ballet (and stayed to watch.) I see him at various arts events, mostly the big ones.

Benjamin, right, was mum too although I sent several messages to him and contacted his campaign manager. I have never seen him at any arts event which doesn’t mean he hasn’t been to any.

In the big realm of important issues in Columbia even I put the arts fairly far down the list. The city has so many problems – crime, poverty, the exodus of businesses - and the city government has just as many - fiscal mismanagement, poor planning and development, enormous pay raises for staff, insider dealings and lack of vision.
That’s doesn’t mean the arts aren’t important and can’t be part of the solution to the other problems.

Over the years I’ve ask elected officials why they don’t go to more art events. The usual response is what the rest of the world says: too busy. Someone who has worked in campaigns and has a lot of contact with those holding public office tells me they are in constant demand to meet with various community organizations and business openings as well as taking care of city duties.  Most have full-time jobs too and some have younger children - although I think it’s possible to take children to museums and plays as well as soccer practice.

Still I regularly see doctors, owners of businesses big and small, college deans and presidents of universities at art event. They’re probably pretty busy too. The only conclusion is can draw is that most local elected officials just aren’t very interested in the arts.

You can ask the candidates your own questions about the arts at a couple of upcoming forums.
The Cultural Council of Richland and Lexington Counties holds a forum on the arts for the candidates Monday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. in the Columbia Museum of Art. All the candidates for mayor say they are coming as well as many running for council seats.

Then Feb. 17 the 701 Center for Contemporary Art is holding a public meeting called “What I Want The City of Columbia To Do For the Arts Is…” If you want to speak, you sign up and can talk for up to five minutes. Alice Perritt, owner of HoFP Gallery, will moderate. It looks like a bunch of candidates as well as well as City Council and the Richland County Council are coming.

Don't even think about sleeping this weekend

Thursday, Feb. 4

Exhibitions take you from the church to the graveyard

Susan Lenz began working on her series “Blues Chapel” in 2006 and “Last Words” in 2008. She wasn’t thinking about it at the time, but it turns out they made good neighbors like a church and a graveyard.

“Blues Chapel,” an homage to women in the blues. and “Last Words,” fabric pieces based on gravestone rubbings, open today at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios.

“Blues Chapel” started as a part of a thematic show at the gallery, “The Blues on Lady Street,” to bemoan the never-ending streetscaping in front of the studios. Lenz  admitted that she didn’t quite grasp the idea, but she did start learning about the blues, something she didn’t know much about. A strong feminist Lenz made 24 saint-like images of great women in the blues - Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday and Alberta Hunter and others.  Many of these women had hard lives – suffering at the hands of the music industry, men, drugs and alcohol. (She pointed out that she was saying this two days after singer Beyonce won six Grammy Awards.)

These individual portraits grew into something bigger and turned into an installation complete with altar and candles in her tiny studio. Not long after, the Sumter Gallery of Art asked her to show the works in a much bigger space.

“Oh, I’m going to have to build a church,” Lenz said she thought at the time.
So she did adding “stained glass” pieces, a bigger altar, more candles and flowers and two church pews.

The genesis for this work was as random as for “Blues Chapel.” While at a residency in Maine in 2008, she was reading a book about quilting and it suggested using rubbings from graves in quilted fabric. 
“I started doing these rubbings, but I thought it the back of my mind, ‘I’ll never use these,’” she said.

She was wrong about that. “Last Words” is made up of 30 grave rubbing quilts, 25 photo transfers with stitching and sheer fabrics embroidered with epitaphs.

 Since stopping by those family plots in Maine, Lenz  has done rubbings from California to Columbia and many places in between as well as England. The rubbings are from graves dating from 1596 to last year.

“I found one that said ‘Never accurate, but never dull,’” she said. Another for an artist couple (not yet dead) read “Actor to Ashes, Dancer to Dust.”
“You get a wonderful sense of these people,” Lenz  said.

The show has a serious side. She wants people to think about how they will be and want to be remembered (not to mentioned disposed of.)
“I hope this opens up a dialogue for that to happen,” she said.

To help with that planning, the “Last Words” has sponsors:  Shive Funeral Home and Fletcher Monuments. Both will have literature at the show. (Flipping open a monument book, Lenz was pleasantly surprised that a headstone could be had for $300.)

The artist had some extra work she wasn’t planning. When “Chapel” was shown in Denton, Texas, starting in November, one of the “stained-glass” pieces was sold. She figured the installation would work fine without that one piece. Then two weeks ago a Greenwood bank purchased the other five. (“Blues Chapel” has been shown several places; “Last Words” piece have been in regional, national and international exhibitions.)

“I've been working like crazy trying to create six new pieces,” Lenz said last weekend. “Same size, same ten-blue hours a piece It has been insane.”

(She finished them with a couple of days to spare.)

An opening reception takes place Friday from 6 to 8.

In conjunction with the show and just down the hallway at the Blue Martini singer Eboniramm performs tunes by many of the singers spotlighted in “Blues Chapel”  at 7 p.m. The performance is free. For the second one at 9 p.m. admission is $5.

The show remains on display through Feb. 16. Because it is tied in to Blue Martini, the gallery will be open unusual hours: 11 a.m. to midnight Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday Tuesday and Wednesday; noon to 6 Sunday.
The gallery, 808 Lady St., can be reached at 252-6134 and the Blue Martini at 256-2442.


Race and the academy
What do we know about the story “Little Black Sambo”? We know we don’t read it to kids any more. A lot of what is said and not said about race is explored in the play “Spinning Into Butter” (if you recall that’s what happens to the tigers who plan to eat Sambo.) 

The acclaimed and sometimes-condemned play by Rebecca Gilman gets a short run the USC Lab Theatre. It is set at a Vermont college where one of the few black students starts getting racist notes. In its attempt to deal with the situation, the college faculty and administration make things worse. But that’s not all; this one has serious twists to it. Performances are 8 p.m. tonight through 7. The theatre is located on Wheat Street between Bull and Main streets. $5. 777-4288.

 “Chemistry” looks at African-American art
 “The Chemistery of Color” explores work made by African-American artists mostly in the ‘80s and ’90s. The show at the Columbia Museum of Art is from the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts one of the nation’s oldest art institutions and one of the first to admit black students. It opens tonight with a member reception. Admission is free on opening day Friday. (If you want to read a bit more, go to my story published Wednesday in Free Times http://www.free-times.com or look at my posting from last Sunday.)

Sorting out the calamity of creativity

  “Cafematch: Clarity vs. Chaos” by W. Heyward Sims takes the viewer on his sometimes conflicting journey of making art and trying to make a living making art in the commerical world. An opening reception launches the show from 6 to 9 tonight and it runs through Feb. 17 at Frame of Main, 1520 Main St. 988-1065.


Friday, Feb. 5

 A little more chemistry

Among the artists in "Chemistry of Color" are Benny Andrews, James Brantley (His "Vanessa's Lips" pictured above), Bettye Saar and Faith Ringgold and the 70 pieces cover a wide variety of styles. The exhibition also looks at the difficulties many of these artists faced in finding and expressing their voices.
Robert Farris Thompson, a professor at Yale University, is one of the leading experts on African-American art and the connections to Africa, speaks today at noon. He has written some amazing books including the seminal Flash of the Spirit. His talke is one of many events during the run of the show through May 9. Admission is free today and every Sunday, and to museum members.
The museum is at Main and Hampton streets. 799-2810.

Dancing on the banks of the Nile
Who, other than the Bangles, really knew how the Egyptian walked let alone danced?
But the Columbia City Ballet is bringing back it’s original 2008 production of “Cleopatra” for a return to the Nile. The big love story is danced in elaborate costumes in front of mammoth sets. The two main characters, Cleopatra and Mark Anthony, will again be danced by Regina Willoughby and Mark Krieger. Peter Kozak is portraying Caesar with Marie Claire Miranda coming out of retirement to dance the role of his wife Calpurnia.
Along with the scenery and dancers, the production includes a camel, cat and snakes.

Performances are Friday, February 5 at 7:30 pm, and Saturday, February 6th at 3:00 and 7:30 p.m.  at the Koger Center. 251-2222 and www.capitaltickets.com

Some pig
A pig and a spider strike up an unlikely friendship in the E.B. White story “Charlotte’s Web.” The Columbia Children’s Theatre stages the classic this weekend.
Performances are at 7 tonight and Saturday and at 3 p.m. Sunday. The theater is above the food court at Mid-Town at Forest Acres (that’s the old mall of a million names), 3400 Forest Drive. (803) 691-4548.

Sax group makes it back
You missed the Tiptons the saxophone group at the Contemporary Art Center last weekend because they were trapped in the ice on Interstate 81. The all-female group has blown through the storm and is performing at Dianne’s on Devine, 2400 Devine St. at 8 p.m.
 http://bigsphinx.com/concerts/index.html

Saturday Feb. 6
Trio of poets reading 
 A pretty remarkable lineup of poets - Nikky Finney, Patricia Smith and Frank X. Walker - read tonight at part of the S.C. Poetry Initiative.
South Carolina native Finney, left, is the author The World Is Round, winner of the 2004 Benjamin Franklin Award for Poetry, and Heartwood, a collection of stories. Her book Rice won the PEN American Open Book Award.
Patricia Smith is the author of five books of poetry, including Blood Dazzler, a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award, and Teahouse of the Almighty, a National Poetry Series selection. She has received a Pushcart Prize and the Carl Sandburg Award.
 Walker has published four poetry collections and is the winner of the 35th Annual Lillian Smith Book Award. He has served as director of the Bluegrass Black Arts Consortium, executive director of Kentucky’s Governor’s School for the Arts and is editor and publisher of PLUCK!: The New Journal of Affrilachian Arts and Culture.
The readings start at 7 p.m. at USC’s Harper College, located on the Horseshoe, in the Gressette Room.  777-5492.

Death and love in two operas
Two one-acts, one English, the other Italian, should give everyone a nice balanced dose of opera. And it’s free. And both are in English.
Opera at USC is doing “Riders to the Sea” by Ralph Vaughn Williams and “Il Ciarlatano (The Charlatan)” by Giacomo Carissimi tonight and tomorrow.
“Riders,” written in 1927, is about Maurya, a woman who has lost her husband, father-in-law and six sons in the rugged seas of Ireland. The 17th century “Il Ciarlatana,” is set in a marketplace where three women discuss the good and bad points of love. 
Performances are at 7:30 today and 3:30 Sunday at the USC School of Music recital hall.

777-4280.

Pub-crawling and fund-raising
“Pub Night” is the Columbia Music Festival Association’s annual fund-raiser and it also happens to be fun. The event, food, drink, darts, takes place tonight at 7:30 at CMFA, 914 Pulaski St. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door. 771-6303.
   
Monday, Feb. 8
Politicians talking about art 

Want to know where the candidates for Columbia mayor and city council stand on the arts? The Cultural Council of Richland and Lexington County is holding a forum at 7 p.m. at the Columbia Museum of Art, Main and Hampton streets.
If you're interested in the arts you really, really, really need to go. Call the council at 231-3131.

Southern reading
Brian Ray, whose novel “Behind the Pale Door” came out last year, will read at part of the Southern Writers Series at the Richland County Public Library. Ray, 6 p.m., Monday, It’s at 6 p.m. at the main library 1431 Assembly St. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from USC. 799-9084.

Wedneday, Feb. 10 
More talk about 'Olympia'

Artists Gwylene Gallimard and Jean-Marie Mauclet, creators of the "Olympia" exhibition at the 701 Center for Contemporary Art will take questions at 7:30. The duo created a huge installation with everything from replicas of buildings in the area to a book exchange library and those who haven't had experience with this kind of work probably have a lot of questions. One thing is certain: everyone should see this show. The center is at 701 Whaley St. 238-2351

Koger's a Cabaret
A touring company brings the dark musical "Cabaret" to the Koger Center today and tomorrow as part of the Broadway in Columbia series. Tickets are $46 to $56. 251-2222 or capitoltickets.com

"Chemisty" and "Grass Roots" story

I have a pretty big piece about the exhibitions "Chemistry of Color" at the Columbia Museum of Art and "Grass Roots: African origins of an American Art" at USC's McKissick Museum in this week's Free Times. freetimes

A womb-like world of paper at art center

"Within and Out," an installation by Jocelyn Chateauvert, takes its inspiration from the sculpture of Richard Serra. Her paper pieces could not be further from the incredible, but oppressive rusty steel slabs by Serra, but one can see the connections down to some of the colors.

The Charleston artists has turned one of the studio apartments at the 701 Center for Contemporary Art into a magical room of brown and blue and gray screens of rough-textured handmade paper.

Each portion was created piecing sheets together on a sewing machine. The walls reach toward the ceiling of the room and create room within their crinkly walls.

A sneak preview of the show took place Sunday, but today it opens for regular center hours Wednesday through Sundays. Call (803) 779-4571.

Nude Tuesday! Tiptons concert coming Friday and another tomorrow

                         "Subjective Perception" by Colin Quashie of Charleston

Tiptons concert back on

The Tiptons saxophone quartet got stuck in the storm Saturday night so couldn't make the planned gig at the 701 Center for Contemporary Art. But they will be in Columbia Friday, Feb. 5 at the unlikely location of Dianne's on Devine (a sponsor of the concert.)

The all-female group plays a mix of blues, klezmer, Balkan and Afro-Cuban music. Doors open at 7 and the concert starts at 8 and admission is $10.

Unlike 701 you can get dinner at Dianne's. The restaurant, 2400 Devine St., is also offering a dinner for two for $50 before the show if you get one of the cards the concert organizers have been distributing.

go to http://bigsphinx.com/

There is a concert at the Center this week which I forgot to include in my week's listings (sorry). It's Wednesday night after the 7:30 talk by artists Gwylene Gallimard and Jean Marie Mauclet, who created the exhibition "Olympia."

Opposite of a Train is a Charleston trio that serves up semi-experimental fare on guitar, accordion, percussion and a few other things.
The center is at 701 Whaley St. 779-4571